No more Steve Ballmer talks and antics on future CES gatherings as Microsoft has decided to pull out from the yearly showcase of new electronic products, making the Las Vegas show on January 2012 the last for the software giant. Photo: REUTERS

Apparently, there are some Microsoft programmers out there who really love boobs, enough to sneak a variant of the phrase big boobs into official Microsoft code.

In a piece of software connecting the Linux kernel to Microsoft's HyperV program, a small piece of hexadecimal code reading 0xB16B00B5 was found. Translated from geekspeak, the code reads, BIG BOOBS.

When Microsoft noticed the offending code, it set the record straight that it is not official company policy to refer to breasts in code.

We thank the community for reporting this issue and apologize for the offensive string. We have submitted a patch to fix this issue and the change will be published in a future release of the kernel, Microsoft told Network World.

While some programmers saw the find as an amusing distraction, others were highly upset by the news, stating that these types of juvenile jokes only serve to reinforce the idea that programming is a career meant only for immature men.

Linux developer Dr. Matthew Garrett wrote of the code: At the most basic level it's just straightforward childish humour, and the use of vaguely-English strings in magic hex constants is hardly uncommon. But it's also specifically male childish humour. Puerile sniggering at breasts contributes to the continuing impression that software development is a boys club where girls aren't welcome.

Garrett was referring to the gender gap in the technology industry. An overwhelming number of workers in the tech industry are men. Many have alleged that women often feel intimidated by the pervasively male-dominated culture surrounding programming and technology.

So was Microsoft's bit of code a deliberate and sexist joke -- or was it simply an accident on the part of some poor programmer out there? Either way, the company is working hard to fix the offending code.